COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Last year's drought is impacting this year's crawfish supply, doubling the prices from what they were last year.
- Fishing crawfish is divided in two crops: an earlier crop in December/January and a later crop in March/April. The earlier crop this year was significantly smaller, providing a fraction of the usual supply.
- Suppliers who usually sell 200-400 bags a week by this time, are selling 150-200 bags a week this year.
- The second crop is expected to have a better harvest and is expected to bring prices back down.
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It's crawfish season but last year's drought is impacting this year's crawfish supply. 25 News spoke with a local live crawfish suppliers who says, because the supply is about half of what it was last year, the price is double.
“The drought killed them off. I think I heard of somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100,000 acres that weren’t fished," Brandyn Staas said.
Staas has been the general manager at the Crawfish Hole in College Station for seven years, so he's used to the ebb and flow of the crawfish business.
“The droughts in Louisiana last summer and fall impacted supply — so a lot of the craw fish that we would have been able to get in January and February just weren't there," Staas said.
Their supply sank.
“Normally by this time by March, we’re probably going through 200-400 sacks a week," Staas said.
This week, they've gone through 150-200 bags — half of what it was last year.
“With the supply being down as it was, prices came up," Staas said.
The sunken supply is now sinking buyers' wallets.
“I would say in the seven years that I've been doing it it's the highest prices I've ever seen," Staas said.
"This week, we're kind of at around seven dollars a pound. This time last year we were in that $3.50, $4 a pound range, so it's a significant difference."
"It's about $100 a sack more expensive this year compared to last.”
But Staas says with the later round of crawfish, things are starting to look up.
“We are starting to see some recovery though — so we're at the point now where we can supply a good number of the restaurants in town," Staas said.
"We're not quite at the point where we can sell to the public yet."
With more crawfish crawling in...
“As that supply goes up, the price will go down," Staas said.
